


once is never enough

by gloriousgalaxy



Category: Endless Summer (Visual Novel), It Lives in the Woods (Visual Novel)
Genre: Aromantic Ava Cunningham, Asexual Zahra Namazi, Cults, Everyone is LGBT+, F/F, F/M, I Don't Even Know, Lesbian Michelle Nguyen, M/M, Most of them are, Oh also, Presumed Dead, also ava still has her magic, anyways the ilitw gang heads to la huerta and meets ending 2 es gang, magic is involved, that's the law of the land babes!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-25
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-07 06:30:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16403093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gloriousgalaxy/pseuds/gloriousgalaxy
Summary: Their adventure is never over. Not after the destruction of the entire world around La Huerta. Or the replacement of a demon with one of your best friends. But, you know, just another day in paradise, right?Paradise, otherwise known as a strange mix of Westchester, Oregon and La Huerta, Nowhere.~Or; a group of high school seniors (and one ghost-demon thing) find themselves transported to a mystical tropical island that seems like a dream.And the Endless Summer gang finds out that the rest of the world isn't as dead as they thought.





	once is never enough

It's like a shadow that follows them in the dead of night, under the cloak of darkness.

 

Noah Marshall, dead man. Or boy. Can he still be counted as a boy? Honestly, what kind of technicality is that? Ava doesn't really know. Maybe no one else senses it anyways. Senses him. But every time she thinks about his dead body, lying still in that cavern, she can feel his presence. Lurking.

 

Maybe he'll come back one day to haunt them. Maybe one day, she'll be working as an accountant or some boring shit and some unholy screech will echo in the distance. And she'll know that he's still here.

 

But hopefully before then, she'll master this stupid  _fucking_ magic.

 

She focuses on the marble on her desk again, summoning that creeping power inside her. She can practically see the dark tendrils circling around the orb. She lifts it higher.... higher.....

 

"Ava!"

 

"Fuck!" She drops the marble, and it drops back down with an unsatisfying _clink_.

 

She turns, and there's Andy Kang. King Kang. Jock boy supreme. She should pay attention more; she could've heard his wheelchair squeaking from a mile away. Maybe then she wouldn't keep losing focus.

 

"Sorry, was I interrupting something?" he says with a sly grin, knowing exactly what that something was. Ava once wondered why Devin was so head-over-heels in love with him. But yeah, now she kind of sees it. 

 

Whatever. She's never really wanted to date anyone, anyways. Sure, she could, but there's never really been that urge for romance that everyone else seems to have.

 

"What's so important that you have to interrupt my practice session, Kang?" she says, glowering. "You know this shit's hard."

 

His face grows serious. "Important matters. Lily is having a problem. A big problem." He stares directly at her, leaning forwards. "She's dating a vampire."

 

Ava rolls her eyes. "Britney again? Lily said she was finally over her."

 

"No, no. She finally gave up Britney, thank God. But now she's found someone else, and her name is Kaiya. Or maybe it's Kay-ah? I honestly don't know."

 

"Oh, the new girl? You're right about her being a vampire. I swear to God, that girl does not sleep." Every time she sees Kaiya/Kayah, she's so perky. It's like she's just been struck by lightning. Word going around is that she's rich, her dad's famous, and she's going to Harvard. But no one really knows for sure. She's like a cryptid.

 

"Anyways, Lily wanted us to meet Kaiya later today. Like 5 P.M.-ish. She says the Starbucks down the street from Lucas's house is where we're gonna meet up. Sound good?"

 

"I guess," Ava mutters, casting a glance back towards her unmoving marble. "Wish it was some other day though. And not at Starbucks. Yeesh. All those preppy white people."

 

Andy rolls his eyes. "You'll live. Anyways, see you then?" He smiles, but it's strained. They all seem fake happy since the incident. Noah's death. Jane's banishment. All that jazz.

 

Whatever. At least she's not Devin, stuck with the choice to let him sacrifice himself rather than going down instead. But he kind of deserved it. Just a little. He almost got them all killed, after all.

 

Ava focuses back on her marble as Andy rolls away.

 

~

 

After they chose to preserve La Huerta - and themselves - forever, life's almost gotten a little bland.

 

Sure, they had fun. Raj had a blast cooking with all the tropical ingredients they found, and despite having no one ever cleaning out the plumbing or pool, everything stayed squeaky clean and working. It was like a dream.

 

But then they discovered that, like the bathrooms and the pool and the plants that regrew themselves, the island seemed to refuse change. Night never came. None of them aged. It was always sunny (unless they went towards the mountains, though. Then it got cold). The only change they really had was... well, come to think of it, Craig can't really think of anything.

 

It's weird. He doesn't usually think too deeply about this kind of stuff. But, like everyone else, he can't seem to notice that this paradise seems almost...

 

"Plastic." he says aloud. "Fake. That's what this place feels like. We're in a Barbie Dream House."

 

"Who's Ken?" Jake questions, lying ten feet down the beach on a blanket. "Am I Ken? Are you Ken? Don't kid yourself. Actually, who am I kidding. We all know Sean is Ken."

 

Taylor nods solemnly. "Damn right." She and Estela are sitting cross-legged in the shallow water. Waves lap around their knees.

 

"I'm just saying, I wish shit changed here! I cut down some vines to get to these cool flowers yesterday, and they're back today! I had to cut them down all the vines again." Craig sighs. "I hate to say this, but I just wish we were back at home. I thought I had nothing left back there, that this would be my home away from home, but it's just some repeating cycle of endless bullshit."

 

"I guess. But haven't you felt that weird feeling in the air?" Grace pipes up. "It almost feels like... someone's here. Someone new. Or someone's coming."

 

"I had this weird dream about basketball," Michelle says, yawning widely. She looks right at home, sprawled on the sand with sunglasses on and a calm smile on her face. "Yeah, some kid I'd never met before totally crushed it. All the other kids were cheering for him. Wild." 

 

Craig's about to reply, but then he smells the sweet scent of something very familiar. He turns around on his beach towel to see Raj strutting towards them with Quinn by his side, both holding huge plates.

 

"Hamburgers and smoothies!" shouts Quinn, almost knocking over her own tray in her rush to get her smoothies to everyone. "Strawberry and starfruit. Which, by the way, was that fruit Zahra found growing on the roof last week."

 

He's got to admit, they're really good burgers. And really good smoothies. Really, maybe nothing changing can have upsides. They can have moments like these whenever they want.

 

But of course, things do change. Because Diego suddenly, and very miserably, says, "The sun is setting." It's a simple phrase, four plain words, but it's enough to shake all of them to their cores.

 

Because the sun is, in fact, setting. The sky is turning orange as it dips towards the horizon for the first time since Taylor preserved this island and gave up the rest of the world. Since they left Rourke to die on the beach.

 

And just like that, a ripple passes over the island. It's visible, a wave of air shifting with color and light. Each of them feels inside and sees the magic seal around the island break.

 

But nothing happens. It turns to night, the sun's time-speeding effect taking action, and the little shards of magic vanish on the wind. Or maybe they go inside them.

 

Zahra stands up from her spot under a tree. Her bag drops from her arm, and her Catalyst Idol spills out. They've all taken to carrying them with them - it's a strange sense of comfort, knowing that they hold a fate that will never come true. Taylor told them all about the idols after they sealed the island.

 

"What does this mean for the island?" Grace says nervously. "What does this mean for us?"

 

No one answers; that's because no one knows. Not even Taylor, who's supposedly in charge of all this magical, mystical island stuff.

 

Craig looks up at the stars, and he thinks he can see his Hadean Zodiac constellation that Taylor told him about. Ursa, the bear. It's huge and majestic, and he loves it.

 

~

 

The meeting doesn't go exactly as planned.

 

Lily introduces her new girlfriend as Kayah, and they talk. Well, they drink Starbucks and talk. What do they talk about? They talk about hobbies, small talk, random things that come up. But it's a little awkward. Ava looks completely out of place in this Starbucks full of preppy white people, Andy can't get his chair to fit properly in the table, and Stacy keeps wrinkling her nose like she can smell a dead animal.

 

Lucas can hardly believe it when Kayah offers to continue their conversation at her house. They drive there in a limo. A limo! 

 

"So the stories are true," Devin says to him with a smirk. "She really is rich. Rolling in money. Cash money." He bends over to pick up a dollar bill lying on the floor.

 

"Okay, well, sometimes people drop things," he says, trying not to judge Kayah too hard. She looks like if Britney Spears and Will Smith had a kid together. A really attractive kid, with perfect teeth and a lot of money. She looks really nice, though, so he's trying to stay neutral about her. However, most of his friends look like they just smelled a dead animal. Not a plus.

 

Once they finally arrive at Kayah's _mansion_ , which takes about half an hour since she lives in the rich-kid town of Pine Springs nearby, Lucas can't help but marvel at the massive lake nearby. It's huge, glittery, and has a strange vibe to it. Like something lives in the water.

 

His thoughts are interrupted by Kayah's driver letting them out. They go into the massive four-story house that looks like something out of a princess storybook. And, of course, Kayah's room is in the basement.

 

They all collapse in various chairs and seats around the room. There's a chair hanging from the ceiling that Stacy nests in like a very large, very human bird. Ava buries herself in a giant beanbag chair. Dan sprawls over a couch. Lily and Kayah snuggle on a pile of pillows. Andy and Devin find a crevice with a giant teddy bear and an abundance of comic books. And Lucas himself chooses a small, comfortable recliner near her TV. She has a TV in her room.

 

They all sort of branch off into their own things, which is strange. Lucas watches Andy and Stacy play video games while Devin reads the comics and Ava practices her magic. Out of Kayah's view, of course. And it's only little things, like how a few fairy lights at a time flicker, or the recliner that Lucas is sitting on shakes a little. What he doesn't notice, though, is the fog that seems to settle over his mind. Until it's too late, and he blissfully drifts into sleep.

 

~

 

Dan wakes up too early, in little flashes of screams and demonic chanting and horrifying, all-consuming fear. When he opens his eyes, there's someone leaning over him. Someone with darkness obscuring their face, who's tapping on his stomach and chest. Not at all gently.

 

He starts struggling, like any normal person, wiggling like a fish out of water. The cultist hovering over him jabs his forehead sharply, and his limbs all seem to go slack. There's no pain, just a strange sense of calm that settles over him in a wave. 

 

Fuck, not again. Not so soon after Mr. Red. He remembers that feeling, when he was walking in the woods scared to death. And then calm settled over him and he just... lay down.

 

And they didn't find him for another week. He wonders how long it'll take them to find him now. 

 

With that, he falls back asleep. In his dreams, he sees an island.

**Author's Note:**

> hope you guys enjoyed! i wanted to take a short break from constantly writing etn stuff, so this is it. my normal fics will go back to updating over the weekend. i'll do the second chapter whenever i'm in the mood/have time.


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